Completion of recommended tests and referrals in telehealth vs in-person visits.

Anthony Zhong; Maelys J Amat; Timothy S Anderson; Umber Shafiq; Scot B Sternberg; Talya Salant; Leonor Fernandez; Gordon D Schiff; Mark D Aronson; James C Benneyan; Sara J Singer; Russell S Phillips

Study

Completion of recommended tests and referrals in telehealth vs in-person visits.

December 6, 2023

Zhong A, Amat MJ, Anderson TS, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(11):e2343417.

View more articles from the same authors.

Increased use of telehealth presents both benefits and potential threats to patient safety. In this study of 4,133 patients, researchers found that orders for colonoscopies or cardiac stress tests and dermatology referrals placed during telehealth visits were less likely to be completed within the designated timeframe compared to those ordered during in-person visits (43% vs. 58%). Not completing test or referrals within the recommended timeframe can increase the risk of delayed diagnoses and patient harm.

PubMed citation

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Low rate of completion of recommended tests and referrals in an academic primary care practice with resident trainees.

January 31, 2024

Do patients who read visit notes on the patient portal have a higher rate of "loop closure" on diagnostic tests and referrals in primary care? A retrospective cohort study.

January 17, 2024

Urgent referrals from primary care to dermatology for lesions suspicious for skin cancer: patterns, outcomes, and need for systems improvement.

December 7, 2022

Systems engineering analysis of diagnostic referral closed-loop processes.

March 9, 2022

Evaluating a patient safety learning laboratory to create an interdisciplinary ecosystem for health care innovation.

July 13, 2022

Lessons learned in implementing a chronic opioid therapy management system.

December 21, 2022

Primary care collaboration to improve diagnosis and screening for colorectal cancer.

May 3, 2017

Enabling a learning healthcare system with automated computer protocols that produce replicable and personalized clinician actions.

August 4, 2021

Surviving Sepsis Campaign: international guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock: 2016

March 3, 2017

Implementation of diagnostic pauses in the ambulatory setting.

February 14, 2018

Optimizing Pediatric Patient Safety in the Emergency Care Setting.

October 19, 2022

A Department of Medicine infrastructure for patient safety and clinical quality improvement.

December 20, 2017

What can hospitalized patients tell us about adverse events? Learning from patient-reported incidents.

August 17, 2005

Patient-reported service quality on a medicine unit.

November 30, 2005

Evaluating ambulatory practice safety: the PROMISES Project administrators and practice staff surveys.

December 17, 2014

Randomized trial of reducing ambulatory malpractice and safety risk: results of the Massachusetts PROMISES Project.

July 19, 2017

User-centered collaborative design and development of an inpatient safety dashboard.

September 20, 2017

Development and usability testing of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Common Formats to capture diagnostic safety events.

May 25, 2022

Addressing ambulatory safety and malpractice: the Massachusetts PROMISES project.

December 14, 2016

Implementation of the I-PASS handoff program in diverse clinical environments: a multicenter prospective effectiveness implementation study.

November 16, 2022

Safety in numbers: the development of Leapfrog's composite patient safety score for US hospitals.

October 16, 2013

Physician and nurse well-being and preferred interventions to address burnout in hospital practice: factors associated with turnover, outcomes, and patient safety.

July 19, 2023

Indication alerts to improve problem list documentation.

January 26, 2022

Clinical reasoning assessment methods: a scoping review and practical guidance.

June 26, 2019

Disclosing adverse events to patients: international norms and trends.

April 30, 2014

Exploration of an automated approach for receiving patient feedback after outpatient acute care visits.

July 30, 2014

A case for safety leadership team training of hospital managers.

March 2, 2011

Evaluation of clinical practice guidelines on fall prevention and management for older adults: a systematic review.

January 12, 2022

Natural history of retained surgical items supports the need for team training, early recognition, and prompt retrieval.

September 24, 2014

National hospital ratings systems share few common scores and may generate confusion instead of clarity.

March 11, 2015

Outbreak investigation of COVID-19 among residents and staff of an independent and assisted living community for older adults in Seattle, Washington.

June 10, 2020

Association of display of patient photographs in the electronic health record with wrong-patient order entry errors.

December 2, 2020

Ten principles for more conservative, care-full diagnosis.

October 10, 2018

Measuring and improving diagnostic safety in primary care: addressing the “twin” pandemics of diagnostic error and clinician burnout.

March 3, 2021

Improving diagnosis: adding context to cognition.

September 7, 2022

Use of administrative data to find substandard care: validation of the complications screening program.

October 26, 2005

Family safety reporting in medically complex children: parent, staff, and leader perspectives.

July 6, 2022

A national implementation project to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection in nursing home residents.

May 31, 2017

Effect of restriction of the number of concurrently open records in an electronic health record on wrong-patient order errors: a randomized clinical trial.

May 29, 2019

Identifying organizational cultures that promote patient safety.

November 18, 2009

Workforce perceptions of hospital safety culture: development and validation of the patient safety climate in healthcare organizations survey.

September 26, 2007

Testing process errors and their harms and consequences reported from family medicine practices: a study of the American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network.

June 11, 2008

Time of day effects on the incidence of anesthetic adverse events.

August 23, 2006

Implementation of the surgical safety checklist in South Carolina hospitals is associated with improvement in perceived perioperative safety.

May 11, 2016

Quality improvement initiative to reduce serious safety events and improve patient safety culture.

August 1, 2012

Evaluation of a patient-centered fall-prevention tool kit to reduce falls and injuries: a nonrandomized controlled trial.

December 2, 2020

Team dynamics, clinical work satisfaction, and patient care coordination between primary care providers: a mixed methods study.

December 2, 2015

Design and evaluation of simulation scenarios for a program introducing patient safety, teamwork, safety leadership, and simulation to healthcare leaders and managers.

August 31, 2011

Reducing hospital errors: interventions that build safety culture.

February 6, 2013

Creating highly reliable accountable care organizations.

September 27, 2017

Randomised controlled trial to assess the effect of a Just-in-Time training on procedural performance: a proof-of-concept study to address procedural skill decay.

November 1, 2017

Patient safety and image transfer between referring hospitals and neuroscience centres: could we do better?

October 27, 2010

Comparison of a prototype for indications-based prescribing with 2 commercial prescribing systems.

May 1, 2019

Using a machine learning system to identify and prevent medication prescribing errors: a clinical and cost analysis evaluation.

December 18, 2019

Operating room–to-ICU patient handovers: a multidisciplinary human-centered design approach.

August 31, 2016

Comparing safety climate in naval aviation and hospitals: implications for improving patient safety.

April 21, 2010

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among frontline health care personnel in a multistate hospital network--13 academic medical centers, April-June 2020.

September 23, 2020

Retained surgical items: a problem yet to be solved.

October 31, 2012

Do medical inpatients who report poor service quality experience more adverse events and medical errors?

February 13, 2008

Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response.

June 3, 2020

How does work environment relate to diagnostic quality? A prospective, mixed methods study in primary care.

July 12, 2023

Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program.

November 12, 2014

Factors associated with the use of cognitive aids in operating room crises: a cross-sectional study of US hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.

May 9, 2018

Artificial intelligence versus clinicians: systematic review of design, reporting standards, and claims of deep learning studies.

May 13, 2020

Using a patient internet portal to prevent adverse drug events: a randomized, controlled trial.

September 11, 2013

Medication safety messages for patients via the web portal: the MedCheck intervention.

July 11, 2007

The culture of safety: results of an organization-wide survey in 15 California hospitals.

March 6, 2005

Racial and ethnic differences in emergency department diagnostic imaging at US Children's Hospitals, 2016-2019.

January 4, 2021

Computerised physician order entry-related medication errors: analysis of reported errors and vulnerability testing of current systems.

January 28, 2015

The global burden of diagnostic errors in primary care.

August 24, 2016

National cluster-randomized trial of duty-hour flexibility in surgical training.

February 10, 2016

Preventing home medication administration errors.

March 14, 2022

Preventing harm in the ICU—building a culture of safety and engaging patients and families.

July 12, 2017

Changes in weekend and weekday care quality of emergency medical admissions to 20 hospitals in England during implementation of the 7-day services national health policy.

November 25, 2020

Perceptions of hospital safety climate and incidence of readmission.

December 15, 2010

Hospital safety climate and safety outcomes: is there a relationship in the VA?

March 10, 2010

Comparing safety climate between two populations of hospitals in the United States.

October 14, 2009

Relationship of hospital organizational culture to patient safety climate in the Veterans Health Administration.

March 25, 2009

Recruitment of hospitals for a safety climate study: facilitators and barriers.

April 30, 2008

An overview of patient safety climate in the VA.

April 9, 2008

A national survey assessing the number of records allowed open in electronic health records at hospitals and ambulatory sites.

May 10, 2017

The vulnerabilities of computerized physician order entry systems: a qualitative study.

December 9, 2015

Computerized prescriber order entry–related patient safety reports: analysis of 2522 medication errors.

October 19, 2016

Screening for adverse drug events: a randomized trial of automated calls coupled with phone-based pharmacist counseling.

March 6, 2019

The effect of contact precautions on frequency of hospital adverse events.

December 9, 2015

Weekly variation in health-care quality by day and time of admission: a nationwide, registry-based, prospective cohort study of acute stroke care.

June 22, 2016

Improving diagnostic performance through feedback: the Diagnosis Learning Cycle.

September 1, 2021

Association of the 2011 ACGME resident duty hour reform with postoperative patient outcomes in surgical specialties.

August 12, 2015

Association of surgical resident wellness with medical errors and patient outcomes.

May 6, 2020

How often do prescribers include indications in drug orders? Analysis of 4 million outpatient prescriptions.

July 10, 2019

Pain management best practices from multispecialty organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic and public health crises.

April 29, 2020

Screening for medication errors using an outlier detection system.

February 8, 2017

Incorporating medication indications into the prescribing process.

May 9, 2018

Implementation of a mandatory checklist of protocols and objectives improves compliance with a wide range of evidence-based intensive care unit practices.

July 29, 2009

Voluntary medical incident reporting tool to improve physician reporting of medical errors in an emergency department.

February 17, 2016

The surgical safety checklist and teamwork coaching tools: a study of inter-rater reliability.

July 30, 2014

Adverse events in hospitalized pediatric patients.

July 25, 2018

Diagnostic assessment of deep learning algorithms for detection of lymph node metastases in women with breast cancer.

January 10, 2018

Mortality trends after a voluntary checklist-based surgical safety collaborative.

May 3, 2017

Scaling safety: the South Carolina Surgical Safety Checklist experience.

January 9, 2019

Related Resources

An electronic trigger to detect telemedicine-related diagnostic errors.

April 17, 2024

Rx for reality: clinicians confront medical gaslighting.

March 13, 2024

Patients' experiences of dental diagnostic failures: a qualitative study using social media.

March 13, 2024

What's going well: a qualitative analysis of positive patient and family feedback in the context of the diagnostic process.

March 6, 2024

"Good care is slow enough to be able to pay attention": primary care time scarcity and patient safety.

March 6, 2024

Low rate of completion of recommended tests and referrals in an academic primary care practice with resident trainees.

January 31, 2024

Medical mistakes are more likely in women and minorities.

January 24, 2024

Do patients who read visit notes on the patient portal have a higher rate of "loop closure" on diagnostic tests and referrals in primary care? A retrospective cohort study.

January 17, 2024

These patients had to lobby for correct diabetes diagnoses. Was their race a reason?

January 17, 2024

Staff warned about the lack of psychiatric care at a VA clinic. They couldn’t prevent tragedy.

January 17, 2024

Patient safety in remote primary care encounters: multimethod qualitative study combining Safety I and Safety II analysis.

December 20, 2023

Influence of comorbid depression and diagnostic workup on diagnosis of physical illness: a randomized experiment.

December 20, 2023

Many people of color worry good health care is tied to their appearance.

December 13, 2023

Detection rates of mild cognitive impairment in primary care for the United States Medicare population.

November 15, 2023

Patient and family contributions to improve the diagnostic process through the OurDX electronic health record tool: a mixed method analysis.

September 13, 2023

‘The Retrievals’ reveals painful experiences of female patients are often ignored.

September 6, 2023

Identifying failure modes in telemedicine: an instructional needs assessment.

August 9, 2023

Associations between self-reported healthcare disruption due to COVID-19 and avoidable hospital admission: evidence from seven linked longitudinal studies for England.

August 9, 2023

Racism in health services for adolescents: a scoping review.

August 2, 2023

How does work environment relate to diagnostic quality? A prospective, mixed methods study in primary care.

July 12, 2023

Clinical Investigation Booking Systems Failures: Written Communications in Community Languages.

May 31, 2023

Is primary care a patient-safe setting? Prevalence, severity, nature, and causes of adverse events: numerous and mostly avoidable.

May 17, 2023

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Doctors must stop tuning out Black women. It happened to me, as a pregnant OB-GYN.

April 26, 2023

"We're not taken seriously": describing the experiences of perceived discrimination in medical settings for Black women.

March 22, 2023

WebM&M Cases

Sepsis Resulting from Delays in Treatment and Miscommunication among Specialists

March 15, 2023

Patient and health care professional perspectives on stigma in integrated behavioral health: barriers and recommendations.

March 15, 2023

Partnering with patients and families living with chronic conditions to coproduce diagnostic safety through OurDX: a previsit online engagement tool.

February 15, 2023

Gender biases and diagnostic delay in inflammatory bowel disease: multicenter observational study.

February 15, 2023

Effect of contextual factors on the prevalence of diagnostic errors among patients managed by physicians of the same specialty: a single-centre retrospective observational study.

February 8, 2023

See More About The Topic

Ambulatory Clinic or Office

Primary Care

Clinical Misdiagnosis

Missed Care

Provider-Patient Communication

Completion of recommended tests and referrals in telehealth vs in-person visits.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Completion of recommended tests and referrals in telehealth vs in-person visits.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site